As described by The Biomimicry Institute, biomimicry ”(from bios, meaning life, and mimesis, meaning to imitate) is a new science that studies nature’s best ideas and then imitates these designs and processes to solve human problems.” For example, people have created non-toxic adhesives inspired by geckos and energy efficient buildings inspired by termite mounds and have studied leaves to invent a better solar cell.  As the Institute describes it, “The core idea is that nature, imaginative by necessity, has already solved many of the problems we are grappling with.” 

They say that we can learn what works by studying adaptations that have evolved among animals, plants, and microbes.  Indeed, they view such emulation as a necessary human survival strategy and as a path toward a sustainable future.

By cultivating a community of people around these ideas, The Biomimicry Institute exemplifies the trend, as described by KnowledgeWorks’ 2020 Forecast:  Creating the Future of Learning, toward networked artisans, whereby inventors, tinkerers, and craftsmen form networks to collaborate and celebrate their creations.  This trend forms part of The Maker Economy driver of change, which suggests that we will move toward increasingly localized economies that make use of flexible fabrication technologies and collaborative approaches to create new ways of intersecting with the broader global economy.

One implication of The Maker Economy is that design promises to become a basic skill, like reading or math, no longer being the purview of specially trained experts.  To me, biomimicry extends the idea of what constitutes design – and therefore of what skills and orientations people will need in order to contribute successfully to our new economies – to include new sources (such as those geckos, termite mounds, and leaves) as well as an evolving understanding of how our human economic endeavors are necessarily situated in, and must be mindful of, a broader environmental context from which we cannot separate ourselves.

As a design orientation becomes more prevalent, and as biomimicry increasingly becomes part of designing for a sustainable future, we will need to consider when and how to incorporate it into learning experiences.

Some educators have already begun to do so.  For example, Prasad Boradkar (Arizona State University, InnovationSpace), Marjan Eggermont (University of Calgary, Schulich School of Engineering), and Tom McKeag (University of California, Berkeley, and California College of the Arts) recently participated on the education panel at a Biomimicry Conference that The Biomimicry Institute hosted with the San Diego Zoo.  To support more educators in incorporating biomimicry into their teaching, The Biomimicry Institute holds an annual summit on biomimicry education at the university level, hosts an educators’ network, and develops K-12 curricula that can stand alone or be part of larger units on science, math, and other subjects.

How much weight should we give this approach as we look toward the future of learning?  How might it intersect with other ways of preparing for the future – such as increasingly hands-on and authentic learning experiences, not to mention the movement toward eco-schools – to form a rich tapestry of learning experiences?  Are there ways in which the design of learning itself might benefit from studying adaptation and evolution in nature?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 25th, 2009 at 10:00 am and is filed under The Maker Economy. It has been tagged with design, networked artisans, sustainable. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.